Article
ID: CBB001022658

Big Science and Big Data in Biology: From the International Geophysical Year through the International Biological Program to the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, 1957--Present (2010)

unapi
Biology Ecology Data analysis Big science Societies; institutions; academies Research methods 21st century 20th century, late Revelle, Roger International Biological Program International Geophysical Year (IGY)

This paper discusses the historical connections between two large-scale undertakings that became exemplars for worldwide data-driven scientific initiatives after World War II: the International Geophysical Year (1957--1958) and the International Biological Program (1964--1974). The International Biological Program was seen by its planners as a means to promote Big Science in ecology. As the term Big Science gained currency in the 1960s, the Manhattan Project and the national space program became paradigmatic examples, but the International Geophysical Year provided scientists with an alternative model: a synoptic collection of observational data on a global scale. This new, potentially complementary model of Big Science encompassed the field practices of ecologists and suggested a model for the natural historical sciences to achieve the stature and reach of the experimental physical sciences. However, the program encountered difficulties when the institutional structures, research methodologies, and data management implied by the Big Science mode of research collided with the epistemic goals, practices, and assumptions of many ecologists. By 1974, when the program ended, many participants viewed it as a failure. However, this failed program transformed into the Long-Term Ecological Research program. Historical analysis suggests that many of the original incentives of the program (the emphasis on Big Data and the implementation of the organizational structure of Big Science in biological projects) were in fact realized by the program's visionaries and its immediate investigators. While the program failed to follow the exact model of the International Geophysical Year, it ultimately succeeded in providing a renewed legitimacy for synoptic data collection in biology. It also helped to create a new mode of contemporary science of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER Network), used by ecologists today.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001022658/

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Authors & Contributors
Adams, Vincanne
Aronova, Elena
Chow-White, Peter A.
Coleman, David C.
Collins, Harry M.
Futuyma, Douglas J.
Journals
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Science
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Publishers
University of South Florida
Duke University Press
Kluwer Academic
Mimesis
Rutgers University Press
University of California Press
Concepts
Biology
Societies; institutions; academies
Research methods
Ecology
Big science
Data analysis
People
Bormann, Frederick Herbert
Massey, Harrie Stewart Wilson
Revelle, Roger
Sokal, Robert R.
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
19th century
Places
United States
Great Britain
Soviet Union
California (U.S.)
Europe
Institutions
International Geophysical Year (IGY)
Royal Society of London
University of California
European Space Research Organisation
Human Genome Project
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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